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Only three drivers in the history of the AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship have achieved the feat of back-to-back-to-back titles, but Noblesville, Indiana's Bryan Clauson will start the 2014 season on Thursday at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Florida with that exact result in mind.
After recovering from four missed races due to other commitments to win his first championship with the Corey Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian Racing #7 in 2012, Clauson stepped into the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing #20 for 2013 and picked up where he left off. Seven wins each season and both championships now present him with the opportunity to join Steve Butler, Robbie Stanley, and Levi Jones as the only drivers to take three-straight.
"Walking into an organization like that, where they have a tradition of winning championships, is a lot of pressure. To step in and go through the process, with the downs and ups of the season, it was satisfying and a lot of fun to work ourselves into form and contend for the championship. I'm excited about some changes we made through last season and in the offseason, so hopefully we can come out even stronger and defend it," Clauson said.
The TSR operation was no stranger to success and championships, as Jones won four-of-five championships before Clauson broke through in 2012. The 2013 season posed a legitimate test, however, as the team saw changes in nearly every area. In addition to the change in the seat, only Brad Mariscotti remained from the crew, and the team switched to Beast Chassis. For the first race of the year, car builder Bob East joined the team as an advisor and Warren Beard completed the crew assembled by race director Jimmy Carr. East would become a full-time addition early in the season.
Despite winning their first race out of the box in a spirited battle with Dave Darland, the beginning of the season was self-described as "challenging." Still, the group found enough footing for Clauson to take his second-straight "Eastern Storm" title in early June using consistent finishes, as a second win on the season was still lacking.
"Each driver is so different. The characteristics of the way Bryan drives a car versus Levi before him are just not the same. Luckily, we meshed together pretty well from the start. It took us a little while to marry everything together and figure out exactly what Bryan likes, and that's when we started to see better results," Mariscotti said.
The wins finally flooded in when the biggest week of the season came, as Clauson took back-to-back wins to close "Indiana Sprint Week" at Putnamville and Bloomington and steal the week-long championship. Two races later, he opened up "Sprint Car Smackdown" at Kokomo (IN) Speedway by slicing from 14th to win without the aid of a caution. By the time Clauson won at Little Rock, Arkansas in early September, he had tied Darland for the point lead.
To close out the championship, they backed up a big win in the final Midwest race of the season at Lawrenceburg (IN) Speedway with another in the first night at Canyon Speedway Park in Peoria, Arizona. As Darland had difficulties, Clauson was steady and dueled with Darland at the "Oval Nationals" as he narrowly missed a win in the final race of the season while clinching the title in the process.
Not only was it Clauson's fourth career National title (joining his two National Midget championships), it was the first Sprint Car title for former racer East, who has achieved numerous titles in both Midget and Silver Crown competition as crew chief and team manager.
"The Sprint Car title was definitely a focus, after we got going. It was the only one that I hadn't won, and I wanted to do that. It was a lot of fun; it's the first series in so long where I had no other cars (chassis customers) competing, so I could totally concentrate on our team. It was a great group to race with. We believed in each other, and confidence makes a big difference," East said.
Clauson, who now sits tied for 16th all-time with 25 career National Sprint Car wins, also relished the opportunity to win with his new group.
"I always dreamed of working with Bob, but never really thought it would be on the sprint car side. When I was coming up, he was king of the midgets. To have an opportunity to work with him and get the chance to win the sprint car championship with him was cool. The chemistry he and Brad had, being friends even outside of racing, helped a lot. Bob wasn't necessarily supposed to work with us all year, but after Ocala it was obvious that we would be good together," Clauson said.
For Mariscotti, it was a slightly different point-of-view, but the level of satisfaction was similar.
"It meant a lot for me, personally, as the only guy still there from all our other championships. And we were able to win the Silver Crown championship, too, with Bobby (East). To be able to go out with a new driver and a really small team, it felt great to do it again," Mariscotti said.
As the top six pairings from last season remain intact for 2014, along with some strong additions pursuing the full schedule, Clauson knows a target will be on them as they try to defend the crown with their Chevrolet Performance – Curb #20 Beast/Kistler.
"It looks like the National Sprint Car bunch is as strong as I can remember it being, and we know that other teams have gotten better in the off-season, so we'll have to start a little quicker and be even better than last year to do it again," Clauson said.
Thursday's season opener at Ocala kicks off "Winter Dirt Games V," which is preceded by a practice night Wednesday evening. Tickets are still available for advance purchase at BubbaRacewayPark.com while an online pay-per-view is offered at USACracing.tv and further information about the race, including post-race coverage, will be found at USACracing.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Graceful Rose in Port Jefferson gets new chef
Graceful Rose, the Port Jefferson restaurant that owner Richard Morrison opened with lottery winnings, has a new executive chef: Massimo Fedozzi, most recently of Vero in Amityville.
Fedozzi replaces Vincent Michaels, who created the menu and oversaw the kitchen when the waterside restaurant opened last fall.
A gifted Italian chef, Fedozzi said that he is working on a new menu. For now, Graceful Rose is following the culinary path that Michaels described as "seafood Continental New World" with a number of Italian recipes derived from the owner's grandmother, Grace, and his mother, Rose.
Graceful Rose is at 154 W. Broadway, Port Jefferson, 631-509-1792.


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- Home
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15% off from June 05 to June 10
Colt Revolving Shotgun (MM60)
Colt Revolving Shotgun Printing Block seen on page 348D. Colt Print Blocks as seen in the Colt Firearms Book. Rare!!!!! One of a kind. Original printing blocks used to print James E. Servenís book "Colt Firearms". These are actual blocks used in the printing press for Servenís original book, first published in 1954. These make wonderful accessory items for any Colt collector.
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This is Alfred Thompson's blog about computer science education and related topics.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Programming With Blocks
What I find is that tastes are different. For every student/teacher I find who loves Alice I find one who much prefers Scratch. And the other way around of course. Others like the additional blocks of Snap! or the Android programming features of App Inventor. Others want something for the very young and look to Kodu. Some of these tools have useful ways to help students migrate from the block programming language to a more traditional language. Alice 3.0 to Java for example. Blockly from the block language to JavaScript, Dart and Python for another.
All of these tools have some great features and either university or private research behind the development. Curriculum for them can be found through their web sites or Internet searching. Textbooks exist for some of them as well. They're listed in no particular order so check out something new to you.
GP is a free, general-purpose blocks programming language (similar to MIT's Scratch) that is powerful yet easy to learn. It runs on most platforms, including laptops, Chromebooks, tablets, and web browsers. This one looks particularly interesting as the GP stands for General Purpose.
Alice Alice is a 3-d environment from Carnegie Mellon. It is probably the most popular and best known of all of these tools as CMU has been promoting it for some years. It can be a bit resource intensive but the ability to create 3D worlds is a big plus. The latest version, Alice 3.0, allows users to export to Java programs. This makes Alice very popular with APCS teachers.
Kodu is a coding environment originally developed by Microsoft Research for the Xbox 360 but now also available for Windows PCs. It is highly graphical with a simple When/Do model of programming. Designed for younger students (8 is the target age) it is very usable by precocious younger students and powerful enough for older students.
TouchDevelop is a little different from the rest. It is not so much a drag and drop programming language as a bridge between them and a text based programming language. The syntax issues are largely gone because you can only add legal commands. It is also developed to be programmed without a keyboard using touch (or a mouse). It works on any device with a good web browser and can take advantage of things like accelerometers on most of them as well. You can also use it with arduino and the BBC micro:bit
Scratch Scratch was developed at MIT at the Lifelong Kindergarten Research Group. This 2D platform is less resource intensive than Alice and Kodu. The Scratch web site with its sharing and social abilities really adds to the value of the Scratch platform.
Scratch Jr is a version of Scratch for even younger children.
Beetle Blocks Visual Code for 3D Design - Beetle Blocks is a graphical blocks-based programming environment for 3D design and fabrication. Blockly is a language being developed at Google as a research project. Blockly is fairly new but borrows a lot of the ideas from Scratch. If you know Scratch you will find this pretty easy to understand. You can export a Blockly program into JavaScript, Dart (an object oriented language from Google), Python or XML.
Snap! (formerly BYOB – Build Your Own Blocks) Snap! nee BYOB is an expansion of Scratch that has been developed at the University of California at Berkeley. It adds new blocks and OOP features. It's being used by a number of AP CS Principles pilots. Snap 4.0 is currently in early beta but the cool thing about it for many schools is that it is completely web browser based so no software installation.
App Inventor for Android Think about App Inventor as being Scratch for developing Android phone apps and you get the basic idea. While not strictly Scratch is was developed by people from both Google and MIT. It resides at MIT these days and is being developed there using ideas from Scratch, Blockly and other sources as a teaching language. For students (and their teachers) who want to get into phone apps it is about the easiest tool there is. It is mostly web based as well.
Thunkable - Thunkable supports Android and they are working on iOS support. Thunkable is based on MIT App Inventor.
Tickle is a fairly new product (Released: Mar 24, 2015 on iTunes) on the Scratch model. "Tickle is the world's first app that enables anyone to program an air drone. You can now program the Sphero robotic ball, Parrot mini quad copter, and Philips Hue lighting system, all wirelessly right from your iPad." I don't own any of the supported devices to try it out. Let me know if you do and what you think of it.
Squeak eToys is one of the first of these tools. Designed by Alan Kay as an implementation of SmallTalk it has influenced all the block languages that have followed. It is still being developed and is quite current. While not as well known, in my experience, as some of the others it is well worth looking at seriously. [Note: I left this out of the first version of this post for which I apologize. I really meant to include it.]
CodeWise A card game and an application. Designed to help very young students start programming.
"By using the CodeWise card game pupils can learn how to 'program' each other. You can find an assignment on each card such as: sing a song, jump, stand up/sit down or move forward.
Groups of pupils can create a programming code together in a fun and interactive way by placing the cards in a certain sequence. The code can be checked by a different group. The game can also be conducted by two pupils."
AgentSheets is probably the very first (before even Squeak eToys and the first as far as I know) and is still available
AgentCubes online is the first of its kind 3D online programming environment and was developed by the people who created AgentSheets.
Daisy the Dinosaur is a free iPad app for introducing some very simple programming to young people. It is very basis and very limited right now. I don't know much about it but if you have an iPad and younger children it is worth a try. It may lead to something more like Kodu or Scratch or Alice as time goes on and they want more. Not many of the other tools work on the iPad other than in the browser so this may be a fun app for many. Thanks to Doug Peterson for the link (Exercise Makes You Grow)
Hopscotch is another iPad app from the same people who created Daisy the Dinosaur. It's a lot like a very basic Scratch and pretty limited as of this review (Hopscotch–Visual Programming for iPads). But it does run on an iPad and that makes it accessible to a lot of people.
Stencyl borrows heavily from Scratch but is focused on creating games. Games may be created and published for iOS, Android, HTML5, Windows and Mac according to the web site.
Move the Turtle (available for iPhone/iPad, $2.99): From what I read this is a lot like Daisy the Dinosaur. The object of Move the Turtle is to use commands to move the turtle though a series of puzzles.
Spherly is a web-based programming environment that allows programs to be written using a block language to control a Sphero robot. Project URL: http://outreach.cs.ua.edu/spherly/
Pixly provides a block language for exploring topics in media computation; particularly, the manipulation of pixels within an image to support red-eye removal, chroma key, etc. Project URL: http://outreach.cs.ua.edu/pixly/
PocketCode allows you to create your own games, animations, interactive music videos, and many kind of other apps, directly on your Android phone or tablet.
RoboMind RoboMind is software specifically developed to support technology education. By programming a robot, students learn about logic, computer science and robotics.
Waterbear Waterbear is a toolkit for making programming more accessible and fun. Having a visual language means you don't have to focus on learning a syntax to start programming.
Pencil Code is editor that lets you work in either blocks or text. Pencil Code supports CoffeeScript, Javascript, CSS, and HTML.
aims to make it easier and more fun to program physical devices, particularly LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots. Enchanting is based on Scratch from the MIT Media Lab
Vizwik is a Social Learning Platform that helps Teachers quickly integrate digital literacy into their classrooms with easy to use KITS for making Mobile Apps. There is a review of it at http://mindsharelearning.ca/2015/04/01/vizwik-product-review/
Actimator is web based and games can be played on Android and iOS devices.
38 comments:
- John Haugeland said...
I have never met a student who cut their teeth in any of these languages and did not come away profoundly damaged and unable to cope.
You would do well to read some Dijkstra.
- John Haugeland said...
I mean this reads to me very similarly to teaching someone to be a carpenter by starting them off with plastic toy tools and telling them to go sculpt sand on the beach.
Not one thing they learn will bear any piece of resemblance to real work. All you're doing is teaching them misimpressions of what the job is, and tricking them out of having meaningful formative experiences.
This is 101 never-do-this material to anyone with actual training as a teacher.
I take it that John Haugeland is of the 'everybody can learn to be a computer programmer and therefore everyone should learn how to write code' school?
These are not proper programming languages, anyone with half a brain knows that, but why deny those who can't or don't want to 'code' the opportunity of being creative with these tools and learning some logic skills along the way. Not everyone wants to be a computer programmer but a lot of kids like to create their own game or 'app' for fun.
These are all great tools. I have used Scratch, Alice, and Kodu in primary, secondary schools, and colleges with a lot of success.
@John – can you confirm the scope of the research you cite or this just anecdotal evidence? Because most of the literature I have read indicates a very positive trend.
BTW I have no idea what this means "This is 101 never-do-this material to anyone with actual training as a teacher." Can anyone understand what John is trying to say here?
John, ouch. I am not quite sure what you mean by real work. A 5th grader is not going to do much commercial programming but they sure could have some fun learning to problem solve with these languages. Give the average 5th grader Java or C++ and see what their opinion of programming is after a week. My sophomore Programming I kids that may take only one programming course in their life can learn some problem solving, procedural thinking, the basics of coding language (If, Repeat, etc) and have a little fun writing stupid little games. They usually get an idea of what programming can do if they learn a big kid language. A good carpenter that is an artist with wood probably started with plastic toys on the beach when they were kids. It is possible to have some serious fun with all these languages and stimulate a kid's curiosity to go further. All of these languages need to be on a beginning programming teacher's must learn list.
I use most of these regularly alongside some simple typed scripting options like javascript in Unity. I think the block ideas remove the syntax issues that can distract kids but the ease of use should not mask a lack of focus on good planning - thinking I about variables and sensible ways of abstracting various parts of the problem. Personally I think we will see an evolution of both hardcore coding and some form of scripting that will see more novel graphical interfaces so that designers can script basic interactions and develop ideas without worrying about indents and curly braces. The CS principles and objectives are the key focus anyway - or should be. Also found my son really got into 'little man computer' which really helps show how a computer works to move and maoipulate info at the very lowest level. Kids just need barriers taken away... Not forced on them just because 'we had to learn the hard way'
My son is 12 and he's been doing Small Basic for years now and we will start with a higher typed language like C in language soon and he has had NO problem with syntax at all or progression to a C based language. He started with a visual based interface like the tools used in FIRST Lego League Robotics and moved forward to more advanced languages as his knowledge grew mathematically and logically. The key is for the foundation and the interest to be laid first with these types of tools that are TARGETED for the right age group. Who would foolishly think a 5 year old with NO Algebra, Calculus, Discrete Math (etc) experience would start right the gate writing Lambda functions with C++. Utter foolishness to think that we start them out with an higher end language without the background needed for mastery. ...was the comment posted as a joke?
- Unknown said...
These tools are all great, if you see syntax as a major obstacle to programming and/or computer science.
However, I don't think semicolons and curly braces are what's holding us back.
- John Iglar said...
I completely agree with Alfred and completely disagree with John.
I am a trained and experienced teacher and have found that using these tools is an excellent introduction to programming. Using them, young children can focus on important concepts and problem-solving and less on finding syntax errors.
There have in fact been studies done on these programs' efficacy, and they are positive. This is one such study I have found.
Sure, there are young children (such as Anonymous' son) who can take to pure coding languages easily. And there is certainly reason to argue for using proper coding languages with older (High School) students. However, with elementary or middle school students it is perfectly reasonable to use simpler tools.
(An analogy: young children learn to play tennis with softer balls, lower nets and smaller courts. Their games have simpler rules with faster scoring. Does this prevent them from becoming good tennis players when older?)
Take the frustrations away and allow the students to experience the joy of creation. When they're ready to move on, they can take the concepts of loops, threads, conditionals, variables, etc. and start learning where to put the curly braces and semicolons.
- John Iglar said...
For those who prefer the purity of code but still want an easier interface for the students to grasp, check out Greenfoot.
Greenfoot is a simple introduction to Java. It's not blocks, but there's a simple GUI that lets you manage some of the aspects of the program.
It's also worth pointing out that the new version (3) of Alice aims at being a good transition to Java, including a NetBeans plugin.
You forgot the parent of these which is around since the late 90s and still more versatile than any of its descendants: Squeak Etoys. This year the new 5.0 version was released.
- Alfred Thompson said...
Squeek eToys! Yes I knew I was forgetting something important but for some reason that slipped my mind. I will update the post. Thanks!
- Alfred Thompson said...
Emmanuel you are right that these are only the "solution" if you identify syntax as the major problem. There are other suggestions and I know you teach one of them with great success. Want to do a guest post on that?
- hutch said...
Alfred, I teach using App Inventor in a Grade 10 course (intro) and using Python in a Grade 11 course (intro). Some of my students in Grade 11 have taken my Grade 10 course and I can state that they are not "damaged goods". I feel that they have a distinct advantage in experience multiple programming paradigms. The students that follow on to the second course are now able to appreciate the power of Java and O-O design also.
Keep up the great discussions.
Personally, I have no problem with people learning these tools, but I would *really* like to hear more from Mr. Schanzer, and applaud Mr. Thompson's suggestion that he write a guest post here on the topic.
- Jim said...
Some of us in physics use VPython, which is the Python language with the Visual extension. http://www.vpython.org/ It's a great way to use programming as an extension and learning tool in physics as students have to create and modify the representations of physics in the 3d world they create.
- A Teacher Speaks Out said...
As a classroom teacher who taught novice high school freshman to sort lists and do recursive math, I would disagree loudly with John. I had students take the concept of recursion and graphic flood fill and apply it into java to solve a problem that while it was easier to solve in other ways, was a perfect solution. I know that I have students who learned with both BYOB and/or Alice who are making Dean's honor roll in CS programs in several major Texas universities.
I kind of think John has not seen the power especially of BYOB/Snap where recursion, searches, sorts, etc are possible while letting the kids focus on the algorithm. Once a kid understands how recursion flood filled a square graphic, converting the algorithm to language is much simpler.
Sorry John but not every kid can focus on the algorithm when a semicolon error frustrates them way too much before the first successful code execution. I challenge any master teacher to take novice freshman female programmers, force them to learn any text based language, have them writing their own recursive sorts in under 4 six week class terms.
Did I mention the best 3 programmers in the room were two freshman female cheerleaders and a girl who was the mascot.
14 years old and writing and understanding recursion.
I am no expert - just a high school CS teacher with 19 years of battling syntax induced anxiety/failure with students.
Ah this is all very interesting. I know little about "Block languages", but I know a little of software engineering, about thirty years. In that time I have drawn more flowcharts, state transition diagrams, activity diagrams, ERDs etc than you can count and now have moved on to tools such as Rhapsody and Artisan that auto-generate code, almost, from UML diagrams. I now describe myself as a logic engineer (it could be a processor or an FPGA my stuff goes on), and I draw software. There is a place for allsorts of solutions. Teaching logic is no bad thing however it is done. Teach them to stop, think, plan, implement and test. If only some of the graduates I get were logical. Oh and by the way I have done assembler, C, Ada, HTML, java, java-script, Coral, Pascal, Fortran 4 and 77, Perl, PHP ...
- Unknown said...
Move the turtle is a lot more complex that Daisy the dinosaur.
Daisy has a very simple set of control structure and preset moves.
The turtle has a set structure of activities that can build a skill set and understanding, you can create and save your own functions (sub routines) then use them again..
Its great for students Y3-Y6.
Then Id suggest a move to scratch..
Thanks for the other options in the list..
- children's games said...
A lot of people are good in programming and they do good things for it. But with all these a lot of people do not like Programming and they just simply work on the things they can do best. Your post has different ideas that we can learn and apply at the time when we require these types of stuff for the learning purpose.
- xota said...
I think Pocketcode from Catrobatqualifies as a nice addition to this list.
Developed by Wolfgang Slany and his team from Graz University of Technology it brings coding with block to mobile devices. There are special blocks to use the sensors of the device and he result is immediately playable on the device.
If you could only download one app it should be this one :-) All the other apps left as exercise!
- Marie said...
Old and tired said..."Teaching logic is no bad thing however it is done. Teach them to stop, think, plan, implement and test." It's a tremendous change of attitude I see in 3rd grade class as the children work with Scratch and Wedo. They also learn to learn from each other instead of being dependent on the teacher for everything.
- Pete Welter said...
The comment is only tangentially related the the topic of block languages - be forewarned:
Bret Victor, who is doing some of best work today on future programming systems, has a great quote when it comes to "the current ways are the best" mentality to programming:
"A common response to my [Victor's] work is 'experts don't need that'. Galileo didn't 'need' algebra either. Just 30 yrs to do something trivial today."
Just as many classrooms today are nearly the same as their counterparts from 50-100 years ago, programming today hasn't moved in a major way since before...well, Dijkstra. It would be hard to argue that we've found the optimum solution in either case. We see a similar argument in math class, we we say using tools like Wolfram Alpha to solve equations is not "real math" - that "real" mathematics is done with pencil and paper and maybe a TI calculator. Nonsense.
As a professional software developer for 30 years, it saddens me to see a mentality - that one needs to use text-based languages to be a "real" programmer - that is mainly about being exclusionary. Yes, text-based languages prevail now, but it's not because they are the be-all end-all solution to the problem of expressing computational thinking.
- Unknown said...
I have been teaching computer science since 1969. At that time, assembler code was converted to machine code by 2 passes of the deck of cards through the card reader. Not very user friendly at all. ha ha. But that was what they were doing in business. -- COBOL was a compiled language-- and many folks did not trust it! ha ha
Now.. think of every step forward we have seen in the last 45 years.... many of them.
Think of the various generations of languages in business. Each one has taken us a little further away from the binary bits..closer to human visual language.
I am now retired from teaching at a community college and am focusing of helping the youth of america to become creators rather than consumers.
Blockly is great! not just for kids. It empowers everyone, every age to use the "universal machine" - a computer -- to solve their very own problems.!
Once I got Hal Abelson's kitty to meow, I was hooked! And the Google Intern got us to complete the program in less than 1/2 hour!
It is fun, engaging and the very intuitive.
We are beyond the point where CS can look down our noses at those who do not excell in Calculus.
Computer Science is the cortex of STEM. -- every scientist, technologist, engineer and mathmatician needs to use programming to solve their problems in the future.
Alfred, thank you for your wonderful posts that bring so many comments!
Arta Szathmary
:)Happy Computing!
- David Bau said...
Another alternative to include in this list: Pencil Code http://pencilcode.net/
Pencil Code is unusual in that it has students programming in a traditional text-based language (CoffeeScript or Javascript), but it provides a block-programming UI that can be toggled back and forth to text-mode freely.
I, too, learned programming with punch card. I carried giant tape reels on airplanes to update banking clients, and had to go down to the cubbies in the basement of our office to pick up printouts after our jobs were runt.
But I digress...today I had the opportunity to work with block coding for the first time with a class of 2nd graders and a class of 3rd graders. It was amazing to see kids learning to think creatively. Teachers were surprised at which students progressed quickly. And most importantly, an hour of code wasn't enough for them...they wanted to bring their lunches in and stay after school.
I imagine that the third grader who practices problem solving and logical thinking skills now will be the one choosing to study and learn syntax and nuances of various languages because they have seen what can be done. Once they've moved the turtle they want to create their own.
If I have the opportunity to work with more elementary students perhaps you secondary teachers will find students eager and receptive to 'real' programming.
- Gary Hall said...
I teach programming to kids in primary schools in the UK. We use Scratch Jr and then move onto Scratch in KS2 (K2). We also use Kodu (more as a lunchtime club) and the children progress onto Raspberry Pi programming on Python.
- xota said...
This week tickleapp.com launched it's Scratch (as in the Scratch way of thinking) iPad app Tickle:
Programming re-imagined for the connected world.
Mike Chen and team started a kickstarter during scratchMIT2014 and will present the journey of his team at Scratch2015AMS.org
Check out this Scratch Fest (disclaimer: I'min organizing team), it will take quite some time to meet the people behind eToys, Pocketcode, Snap, Scratch, BeetleBlock and so many more ...
- Unknown said...
I am a Teacher of Computing in the UK. I have programmed for 30 years; I have only taught for 6. I am one of the generation of programmers Dijkstra suggested would be damaged in exactly the same way because they were taught unstructured BASIC first. The first time I saw Pascal (my second high-level language) I took to it like a ten year old to Oreo cookies. I have never looked back or used a GOTO since.
Teaching my Year 9 Computing GCSE students structured BBC Basic today I realised something quite startling.
I was trying new approaches because some of my students were struggling so badly with the coding. I tried explaining the program in terms of Scratch like blocks - parameters plug in to the function call, the function result plugs in to the assignment or the print statement, the print statement plugs in to the loop body etc. This had some success. It was then that I realised that in spite of being brought up on exclusively textual programming languages (BASIC, Pascal, Prolog, LISP, Modula 2, C, C++, Java, Javascript and PHP etc.) the way my brain understands and internally constructs code best is as blocks, in the just the way tools like Scratch and Alice represent them. This was not an earliest development for me; I learnt highly unstructured BASIC and Z80 Assembler / Machine code first. The 'superior' structured languages (Pascal etc) were the first to begin to tap into that block structured thinking. So surely, by rights, in Dijkstra's terms Scratch et al. are in some way SUPERIOR to fiddly text based languages, where often the real structure of the program gets obfuscated by the word- and punctuation-obsessive line-by-line syntax.
It explains why I hate most in-the-wild JavaScript and some recent Java, because once you have overused some grotesque framework like jquery or heavy-handed Java 7 templating, it becomes nigh on impossible to visually parse the syntax into functional language type 'pipelines' (output plugging into next input) and wheel-within-wheel containers (inner code plugged in to outer code).
So, for my tuppence-worth, I believe the reason that the likes of Scratch are rightly hugely successful is precisely because the tools work closer to the way many children (visual, creative, constructivist lego buiilders!) and adults think, whatever languages they become proficient in. A good toolmaker makes tools that fit the hands and minds of the craftsman doing the creative work. Otherwise, why aren't we all coding in hand-crafted machine-code? Or Z notation?
After all RMDEQ!
Garth, i am exactly 11 and i have already done html, javascript and C++ AND I AM ONlY ELEVEN. Those blocks are not going to help people know about work.
- Unknown said...
I am 72 and have seen a lot of programming languages since the Hollerith machines.
All the negative comments I can only (-sorry guys-) see as Blah Blah.
If we follow the code geeks we would write our applications still in Assembler or even worse in RPGII.
Every smart programmer has in his own toolbox lots of fuctions and procedures he can call on and rely on. And it was Bill Gates who said "good programming is smart copying"
We have all written or copied thousand lines of codes over and over again.
Nowadays there are lots of tools for smart database programming without a line of code.
And you see the same trend for roboting computing.
And the real nerds among us like Garth should concentrate on developing smart visual blocks which applications programmers can use and make a lot of money by doing so. And yes Garth for that you need C++. And keep in mind Garth not every good soccer player needs to be a Messi, Maradonna or Cruyff.
- Michael Ball said...
This is definitely a great resource!
One note about Snap! -- as of the last few months, "4.0" is not longer beta! :-D Snap! is stable, and the current version 4.0.2 includes some new features which allow full keyboard control of scripting. (It's so new, documentation is still being written!)
As a programmer myself what I like about Scratch, is that it is good representation of modern Integrated development Environment (IDE) approach to programming. It has drag and drop type display window but it also has script, run and break functions and libraries of resources.
My daughter (aged 10) has started using it at home lately and I find myself giving her tips such as moving her sprite back to its start position at the top of the code: I know that might be redundant but it makes fixing what she is doing easier if she always starts off at the same place. She likes it because she likes her art and its an easy way for her to create simple animations.
So I would say give it a go and see what you can do.
- jeffreyu said...
Great blog, thanks!
@Alfred Thompson and other CS educators:
As ones who know the field, what are your thoughts on the viability of creating an extra-curricular environment to 'play' with these tools à la a karate class or Kumon? Too niche? Would parents see the value? Be willing to pay? Thoughts?
- Alfred Thompson said...
Jeffrey there are programs like that around the country. I don't know how much (or if they charge).
- Jon said...
Tynker is a great one my kids love: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tynker-coding-for-kids.-visual/id805869467?mt=8
Lookingglass is a new one, haven't used it yet: https://lookingglass.wustl.edu/
- Unknown said...
Where is Logo? Even older than Squeak (I think), and a great introduction that stresses functional programming and recursion, capable of generating fascinating graphics, but also capable of doing so much more (multiple programming paradigms (imperative, object oriented, functional, metaprogramming). It is in the LISP/Scheme family and a great introduction to either of those languages, as well as others from that family, such as Racket and Clojure.
- xota said...
Mark Guzdial blogged yesterday about GP, a promising block language in development. Although GP is still in pre alpha you can play with it in the "MUCK" mentioned at the end of computinged.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/introducing-gp-a-general-purpose-block-language/
When in August 2015 GP was first publicly demonstrated at the Amsterdam Scratch conference, almost simultaneously in Nebraska at ICER2015 it was concluded that blocks had won, at least according to Guzdial's ICER 2015 Report: Blocks win–Programming Language Design == UI Design | Computing Education Blog


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As with the production of much of his art, there was a decidedly systematic process behind the production of Andy Warhol's photography. Beginning in the 1960s, Warhol carried a camera with him at all times, documenting every aspect of his life – from the most public to the most private, the fabulous to the mundane. When he had shot several rolls, he would hand them off to his secretary and Factory "superstar" Brigid Berlin (daughter of former Hearst Foundation president and CEO, Richard E. Berlin). Brigid would take the film to a New York photo lab to be developed and, from the contact sheets, Warhol would select the pictures he wanted as prints. From that point on, only one print of an image would be made.
These singular works represented a clear deviation from his customary, serial modus operandi of endless repetition and large editions of silkscreen prints.
But what became of those rare, individual photographic prints? Shortly before his death, Warhol mounted the one and only photography show during his lifetime in January of 1987 at Robert Miller Gallery. The rest of his photographic work – more than 50,000 still images – has remained largely unseen.
Fast-forward to 2010, when Jim Hedges, former president and chief investment officer of LJH Global Investments, announces that after 18 years, he is leaving the world of finance for the world of art. Hedges was one of the few private collectors to take an interest in Warhol's photography and he began buying batches of it from the Warhol Foundation in the early 2000s. He currently owns one of the largest private collections of Warhol's work. A large selection of Hedges' collection will be shown at the New York Design Center in New York City this week in the exhibition titled, I'll Be Your Mirror.
Hedges, a tall, gregarious, Tennessean grew up with a fascination for Warhol's downtown Factory and poured over the pages of Interview magazine as a teenager. As an adult, he first acquired a set of Warhol's Polaroids from the Warhol Foundation, and his obsession – and acquisitions – grew from there. The more he collected, the more he found out about Warhol and his life. People Warhol had photographed began contacting Hedges after finding out he had many of Warhol's pictures, offering Hedges insights into the stories behind the photographs.
At one point, Bianca Jagger sent him a Facebook message saying that she'd heard he had some photographs of her. They're now Facebook friends.
The work in the NYDC show comes not only from Hedges' collection, but from the collection of Pat Hackett, Warhol's diarist and frequent writing accomplice, and from Sam Bolton, Warhol's constant companion in the latter part of his life. The show can be divided into three themes: Warhol's social life in black-and-white 35 mm; his Polaroid portraits; and a rare, intimate set of photographs from his personal life. Hedges has thoughtfully collected the photographs into smaller, more concise groupings that reflect his deep knowledge of Warhol's proclivities. However, among the glitz and glamor of his Polaroids and the documentation of the stars populating his societal galaxy, there are also quieter, striking photographs of his friends and lovers, offering an unexpected and welcome glimpse behind the cold, composed (and protective) Warholian veneer that the artist constructed around himself through the years. Though photography was an intrinsic part of Warhol's work, it also seems that it was an equally integral part of his life. And though he has been in the spotlight for decades, so much of his shadow has yet to come to light.
Andy Warhol's unseen photographs are on view in I'll Be Your Mirror at 1stdibs' 10th floor gallery in the New York Design Center, Sept. 10 – Oct. 7, 2013.
Mia Tramz is an Associate Photo Editor at TIME.com. Follow her on Twitter @miatramz.


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Photo Shows US Sen. Kirk Looking Alert Months After Stroke
The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago has released a photo of Sen. Mark Kirk that is the first public image of the Illinois Republican since his January stroke.
The photo shows Kirk with closely trimmed hair, looking alert and sitting up as he rests his right arm on a table.
The director of the institute's Center for Stroke Rehabilitation, Dr. Richard Harvey, also gave an update Tuesday on Kirk's progress with recovery.
Harvey says the senator has walked more than 10 miles in total since he arrived at the center in February. He's also able to climb stairs and get in and out of vehicles.
Doctors have said the 52-year-old Kirk should make a full mental recovery, although they expect the stroke will limit movement on his left side.
(Photo courtesy of The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago)


text: NYSE:XOM Exxon Mobil Stock Forecast, Price & News Adding Choose a watchlist: Adding You have already added five stocks to your watchlist. Upgrade to MarketBeat Daily Premium to add more stocks to your watchlist. Adding Exxon Mobil Co. Please log in to your account or sign up in order to add this asset to your watchlist. Log In and Add $34.33 +0.05 (+0.15 %) (As of 09/30/2020 12:00 AM ET) Add Compare Share Today's Range$34.13Now: $34.33▼$34.9250-Day Range$34.28MA: $39.05▼$44.9752-Week Range$30.11Now: $34.33▼$73.12Volume22.02 million shsAverage Volume28.32 million shsMarket Capitalization$145.16 billionP/E Ratio20.43Dividend Yield10.15%Beta1.26 ProfileAnalyst RatingsChartCompetitorsDividendEarningsFinancialsInsider TradesInstitutional OwnershipHeadlinesOptions ChainSEC FilingsShort InterestSocial Media Exxon Mobil Corporation explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas in the United States, Canada/Other Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia/Oceania. It operates through Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical segments. The company is also involved in the manufacture, trade, transport, and sale of crude oil, petroleum products, and other specialty products; and manufactures and markets petrochemicals, including olefins, polyolefins, aromatics, and various other petrochemicals. As of December 31, 2018, it had approximately 24,696 net operated wells with proved reserves of 24.3 billion oil-equivalent barrels. The company was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas.Read More Beat the Market (BTM) Rank™ 4.0 Analyst's Opinion Consensus RatingExxon Mobil has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 1.93, and is based on 3 buy ratings, 20 hold ratings, and 5 sell ratings.Price Target Upside/DownsideAccording to analysts' consensus price target of $51.22, Exxon Mobil has a forecasted upside of 49.2% from its current price of $34.33.Amount of Analyst CoverageExxon Mobil has been the subject of 10 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock. Previous Next 2.2 Community Rank Outperform VotesExxon Mobil has received 1,240 "outperform" votes. (Add your "outperform" vote.)Underperform VotesExxon Mobil has received 1,538 "underperform" votes. (Add your "underperform" vote.)Community SentimentExxon Mobil has received 55.36% "underperform" votes from our community.MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Exxon Mobil and other stocks. Vote "Outperform" if you believe XOM will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote "Underperform" if you believe XOM will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next 3.3 Dividend Strength Dividend LeadershipExxon Mobil is a leading dividend payer. It pays a dividend yield of 10.15%, putting its dividend yield in the top 25% of dividend-paying stocks.Dividend GrowthExxon Mobil has been increasing its dividend for 13 years.Dividend CoverageThe dividend payout ratio of Exxon Mobil is 154.67%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable.Dividend SustainabilityBased on EPS estimates, Exxon Mobil will have a dividend payout ratio of 302.61% in the coming year. This indicates that Exxon Mobil may not be able to sustain their current dividend. Previous Next 1.0 Company Ownership Insider Buying vs. Insider SellingIn the past three months, Exxon Mobil insiders have not sold or bought any company stock.Percentage Held by InsidersOnly 0.05% of the stock of Exxon Mobil is held by insiders.Percentage Held by Institutions50.90% of the stock of Exxon Mobil is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company. Previous Next 1.3 Earnings and Valuation Earnings GrowthEarnings for Exxon Mobil are expected to grow in the coming year, from ($0.32) to $1.15 per share.Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the MarketThe P/E ratio of Exxon Mobil is 20.43, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 18.65.Price to Earnings Ratio vs. SectorThe P/E ratio of Exxon Mobil is 20.43, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Oils/Energy sector average P/E ratio of about 16.22.Price to Book Value per Share RatioExxon Mobil has a P/B Ratio of 0.73. P/B Ratios below 1 indicate that a company could be undervalued with respect to its assets and liabilities. Previous Next Analyst Opinion: 4.0Community Rank: 2.2Dividend Strength: 3.3Insider Behavior: 1.0Valuation: 1.3 5 -4 -3 -2 -1 -Overall Beat the Market Rank™2.35 out of 5 stars Industry, Sector and Symbol Stock Exchange NYSE Industry Petroleum refining Sub-IndustryIntegrated Oil & Gas SectorOils/Energy Current SymbolNYSE:XOM Previous Symbol CUSIP30231G10 CIK34088 Webcorporate.exxonmobil.com Phone972-940-6000Debt Debt-to-Equity Ratio0.25 Current Ratio0.93 Quick Ratio0.58Price-To-Earnings Trailing P/E Ratio20.43 Forward P/E RatioN/A P/E GrowthN/A Sales & Book Value Annual Sales$264.94 billion Price / Sales0.55 Cash Flow$6.29 per share Price / Cash Flow5.46 Book Value$47.02 per share Price / Book0.73Profitability EPS (Most Recent Fiscal Year)$2.25 Net Income$14.34 billion Net Margins3.24% Return on Equity2.09% Return on Assets1.12%Miscellaneous Employees74,900 Outstanding Shares4,228,233,000Market Cap$145.16 billion Next Earnings Date10/30/2020 (Confirmed) OptionableOptionable $34.33 +0.05 (+0.15 %) (As of 09/30/2020 12:00 AM ET) 30 days | 90 days | 365 days | Advanced Chart Receive XOM News and Ratings via Email Sign-up to receive the latest news and ratings for XOM and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter. Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) Frequently Asked Questions How has Exxon Mobil's stock price been impacted by Coronavirus (COVID-19)? Exxon Mobil's stock was trading at $41.98 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, XOM stock has decreased by 18.2% and is now trading at $34.33. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Do Wall Street analysts recommend investors buy shares of Exxon Mobil? 28 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Exxon Mobil in the last year. There are currently 5 sell ratings, 20 hold ratings and 3 buy ratings for the stock, resulting in a consensus recommendation of "Hold." View analyst ratings for Exxon Mobil. When is Exxon Mobil's next earnings date? Exxon Mobil is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Friday, October 30th 2020. View our earnings forecast for Exxon Mobil. How can I listen to Exxon Mobil's earnings call? Exxon Mobil will be holding an earnings conference call on Friday, October 30th at 12:00 AM Eastern. Interested parties can register for or listen to the call using this link or dial in at Not Available. How were Exxon Mobil's earnings last quarter? Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM) announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July, 31st. The oil and gas company reported ($0.70) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.61) by $0.09. The oil and gas company earned $32.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $38.16 billion. Exxon Mobil had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 2.09%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 52.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.61 earnings per share. View Exxon Mobil's earnings history. How often does Exxon Mobil pay dividends? What is the dividend yield for Exxon Mobil? Exxon Mobil announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.87 per share on Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 12th. View Exxon Mobil's dividend history. What price target have analysts set for XOM? 28 Wall Street analysts have issued 12-month price targets for Exxon Mobil's shares. Their forecasts range from $34.00 to $83.00. On average, they anticipate Exxon Mobil's stock price to reach $51.22 in the next year. This suggests a possible upside of 49.2% from the stock's current price. View analysts' price targets for Exxon Mobil. What are Wall Street analysts saying about Exxon Mobil stock? Here are some recent quotes from research analysts about Exxon Mobil stock: 1. UBS Group AG analysts commented, "ZuRICH (dpa-AFX Analyser) – Die Schweizer Grossbank UBS hat die Einstufung fur ExxonMobil auf Neutral" mit einem Kursziel von 46 US-Dollar belassen. Im Zuge des dramatischen Nachfrage-Schocks und des Einbruchs der olpreise habe er seine Gewinnschatzungen fur die olkonzerne weiter gekurzt, schrieb Analyst Jon Rigby in einer am Dienstag vorliegenden Branchenstudie. Seine Top Picks" sind Total und BP in Europa sowie Chevron in den USA./ajx/mis Veroffentlichung der Original-Studie: 06.04.2020 / 05:12 / GMT Erstmalige Weitergabe der Original-Studie: 06.04.2020 / Uhrzeit in Studie nicht angegeben / GMT Hinweis: Informationen zur Offenlegungspflicht bei Interessenkonflikten im Sinne von § 85 Abs. 1 WpHG, Art. 20 VO (EU) 596/2014 fur das genannte Analysten-Haus finden Sie unter http://web.dpa-afx.de/offenlegungspflicht/offenlegungs_pflicht.html." (4/7/2020) 2. Credit Suisse Group AG analysts commented, "ZuRICH (dpa-AFX Analyser) – Die Schweizer Bank Credit Suisse hat das Kursziel fur ExxonMobil von 48 auf 37 US-Dollar gesenkt, die Einstufung aber auf Neutral" belassen. Analyst William Featherston kurzte in einer am Donnerstag vorliegenden Studie seine olpreiserwartungen fur 2020 und 2021 wegen eines grosser als erwarteten Nachfrageruckgangs im Zuge der Corona-Krise. Der Kampf gegen den Virus mit den globalen weitreichenden Massnahmen drucke deutlich auf den olbedarf./tih/bek Veroffentlichung der Original-Studie: 02.04.2020 / 13:17 / UTC Erstmalige Weitergabe der Original-Studie: Datum in Studie nicht angegeben / Uhrzeit in Studie nicht angegeben / Zeitzone in Studie nicht angegeben Hinweis: Informationen zur Offenlegungspflicht bei Interessenkonflikten im Sinne von § 85 Abs. 1 WpHG, Art. 20 VO (EU) 596/2014 fur das genannte Analysten-Haus finden Sie unter http://web.dpa-afx.de/offenlegungspflicht/offenlegungs_pflicht.html." (4/2/2020) Has Exxon Mobil been receiving favorable news coverage? News stories about XOM stock have trended very negative this week, according to InfoTrie Sentiment. The research group rates the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than six thousand news and blog sources in real-time. The firm ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -5 to 5, with scores nearest to five being the most favorable. Exxon Mobil earned a news impact score of -3.8 on InfoTrie's scale. They also gave news articles about the oil and gas company a news buzz of 0.0 out of 10, meaning that recent media coverage is extremely unlikely to have an effect on the stock's share price in the next few days. View the latest news about Exxon Mobil. Are investors shorting Exxon Mobil? Exxon Mobil saw a increase in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totaling 45,640,000 shares, an increase of 9.2% from the August 15th total of 41,800,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 23,030,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days. Approximately 1.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. View Exxon Mobil's Short Interest. Who are some of Exxon Mobil's key competitors? Some companies that are related to Exxon Mobil include Chevron (CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B), BP (BP), China Petroleum & Chemical (SNP), Equinor ASA (EQNR), ConocoPhillips (COP), Phillips 66 (PSX), Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Suncor Energy (SU), Valero Energy (VLO), Hess (HES), Repsol (REPYY), Imperial Oil (IMO), HollyFrontier (HFC) and Sunoco (SUN). View all competitors. What other stocks do shareholders of Exxon Mobil own? Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some companies that other Exxon Mobil investors own include AT&T (T), Chevron (CVX), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Verizon Communications (VZ), Intel (INTC), Pfizer (PFE), Walt Disney (DIS), Cisco Systems (CSCO) and General Electric (GE). Who are Exxon Mobil's key executives? Exxon Mobil's management team includes the following people: Mr. Darren W. Woods, Chairman & CEO (Age 54)Mr. Andrew P. Swiger, Sr. VP & Principal Financial Officer (Age 62)Mr. Neil W. Duffin, Pres of ExxonMobil Global Projects Company (Age 62)Mr. David S. Rosenthal, Principal Accounting Officer, VP & Controller (Age 62)Mr. Neil A. Hansen, VP of Investor Relations & Sec. What is Exxon Mobil's stock symbol? Exxon Mobil trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "XOM." How do I buy shares of Exxon Mobil? Shares of XOM can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab. What is Exxon Mobil's stock price today? One share of XOM stock can currently be purchased for approximately $34.33. How big of a company is Exxon Mobil? Exxon Mobil has a market capitalization of $145.16 billion and generates $264.94 billion in revenue each year. The oil and gas company earns $14.34 billion in net income (profit) each year or $2.25 on an earnings per share basis. Exxon Mobil employs 74,900 workers across the globe. What is Exxon Mobil's official website? The official website for Exxon Mobil is corporate.exxonmobil.com. How can I contact Exxon Mobil? Exxon Mobil's mailing address is 5959 LAS COLINAS BOULEVARD, IRVING TX, 75039. The oil and gas company can be reached via phone at 972-940-6000. This page was last updated on 9/30/2020 by MarketBeat.com Staff 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for $1.00 Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools: Best-in-Class Portfolio Monitoring View the latest news, buy/sell ratings, SEC filings and insider transactions for your stocks. Compare your portfolio performance to leading indices and get personalized stock ideas based on your portfolio. Stock Ideas and Recommendations Get daily stock ideas top-performing Wall Street analysts. Get short term trading ideas from the MarketBeat Idea Engine. View which stocks are hot on social media with MarketBeat's trending stocks report. Advanced Stock Screeners and Research Tools Identify stocks that meet your criteria using seven unique stock screeners. See what's happening in the market right now with MarketBeat's real-time news feed. Export data to Excel for your own analysis. Start Your Risk-Free Trial Subscription Here Questions? 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Stanford University - Great Bear Rainforest - Art Sterritt
I shot this video for Stanford University in the Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia.
Art Sterritt, who has played a critical role in establishing and protecting the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, has been selected as the second annual recipient of the Stanford Bright Award.
As the founding executive director of Coastal First Nations (CFN) in British Columbia, Sterritt has negotiated many agreements between Canadian federal and provincial governments and coastal native peoples, the crowning achievement being the establishment of the 21-million-acre Great Bear Rainforest north of Vancouver. While protecting the Canadian ecosystem from deforestation and other exploitation, CFN has established services that support its member nations' efforts to create sustainable businesses within the territory.


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Although most of the Gulf Arab markets ended the week on a positive note, the Cairo Stock Exchange followed the negative trend of international markets, and ended the week 7.5 percent lower. The Hermes Financial Index in Egypt fell to 6,364.89 points, losing a total of 16.9 percent of its value in local currency since the start of the year.
The best performer for the week was Kuwait's KSE index which gained 3.3 percent, closing at 1,426.10 points, the highest level since October. The recent gains were attributed to the inflow of funds entering the optimistic Kuwaiti market.
Qatar's CBQ index ended the week 1.9 percent higher, closing at 207.90 points. The rise was largely a result of the 4.9 percent surge in Qatar National Bank—the country's leading financial institution—that reported strong earnings for 2000.
Bahrain's BSE index closed 1.2 percent higher at 1,626.76 points, after market heavyweight Investcorp shot up by 9.5 percent. Saudi Arabia's NCFEI merely rose 0.3 percent, closing on 2,274.38 points.
Among the losing bourses this week was Oman's MSM index which lost nearly 3.0 percent, and the UAE's NBAD index ending 0.6 percent down to 2,503.81.
The Jerusalem index of the Palestinian territories lost 1.7 percent, closing on 183.82 points, while Tunisia's Tunindex continued its downward trend, losing 1.6 percent to a close at 1,331.01 points.
Lebanon's BLOM index was down 0.6 percent, closing on 531.31 points, and the CSE index in Morocco fell 0.5 percent to 706.29 points. In Jordan, the ASE index closed almost unchaged at 138.41 points. — (Albawaba-MEBG)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
© 2000 - 2020 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)


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Camp beside the Wimmera River with its fringe of river red gums. Wake to birdsong, or hike the rolling dunes of the desert, alive with spring wildflowers and native wildlife.
Far from being a featureless and barren desert, the park is home to a surprising number of plant and animal species that have adapted to the semi-arid environment. Extensive heathlands and woodlands of yellow gum and slender cypress-pines support a diverse range of birds, from wrens, parrots and honeyeaters to the fascinating mound-building Mallee Fowl.
Experienced long distance walkers can tackle all or part of the 74 kilometre Desert Discovery Walk. Options of one to four days duration are possible. A separate brochure is available for this walk. Overnight walkers are asked to register their details in advance. There are two overnight camps along the way, accessible only by walkers.
This walk is a great opportunity to experience some of the park's diversity on foot.
Location: Little Desert National Park
Length: 74km
Walk: 4 days
Track: Moderate
Grade: Moderate
Start: Kiata/Horseshoe Bend camping ground
Finish: Kiata/Horseshoe Bend camping ground
Nearby: Dimboola
Permits/bookings: For overnight walkers
Best time: Winter/Spring
Safety: This is a long distance walk in a remote area. Walkers must be fully self sustainable and experienced in remote walking. Walkers must be registered in advance at the Park Office.
Map pins are available via the tab key in a list after the map.
You can pan the map with the keyboard arrows.
-36.44642 141.79865


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The Biomolecular NMR Facility provides instrumentation, research infrastructure and expertise for the groups in the Department of Biochemistry who want to use this versatile technique to obtain data on the structure and dynamics of biological macromolecules.
Three spectrometers are available encompassing field strengths in the range 500-800 MHz, all of which are equipped with cryoprobes.
The instruments are all located in the NMR Suite – two rooms (00.09-00.10) in the sub-basement (level 00), shared with the Cryo-EM Facility, of the Sanger Building of the Biochemistry Department on Tennis Court Road.
The facility is part of a larger collection of service and research facilities in the Department of Biochemistry. A pdf brochure may be found here.
The infrastructure of the NMR Facility was funded through the BBSRC and the Wellcome Trust.


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Make your child's birthday party at the Flint RiverQuarium one they'll never forget! Flint RiverQuarium Birthday Parties are recommended for children ages 4 - 10.
Included in the RiverQuarium Birthday Package:
- Two hour use of the Flint River Room
- Birthday Cake from: CakesCakesCakes.com
- Invitations, plates, cups, napkins and utensils, all you need are drinks
- RiverQuarium t-shirt for the birthday child
- Prize for each child attending
- Live animal presentation
- Guided tour of the RiverQuarium for adults and children
- Birthday Party Host(ess)
- Ask about add-ons, such as combining your Birthday Party with a Sleep Over
Party Times
Birthday Parties are held on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. or on Sunday from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Subject to availability)
Party Animals
The birthday child can choose an animal to have presented during the party, this can include one of the following animals:
- Turtles
- Snakes
- Alligators
- Member cost for 1 - 15 children and 15 adults: $200
- Non-Member cost for 15 children and 15 adults: $225
- $9 charge for each additional child up to a maximum of 20 children.
- $8 charge for each additional adult.
- A non-refundable $100 deposit is due upon scheduling your child's party.
- The birthday package does not include Imagination Theater tickets, however tickets may be purchased in advance.
- Theater tickets for ages 4 and up are $5. 3 and under are no charge. Group rates are available. Please call for showtimes and reservations.
- Flint Packs from the Gift Shop can also be added to the Birthday Package
Make Your Reservation
Please schedule your party as far in advance as possible in order to secure the date.


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The Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of Human Events...
Welcome to ushistory.org's Declaration of Independence website. This site provides a wealth of information about the signers of the Declaration, the history of the Declaration, and an online version of the Declaration for you to read.
The site also provides links to other Declaration-related biographies and histories. This site is a good resource for anyone curious about the Declaration and its history, or for the student who needs resources for his or her research paper.
Where is the original Declaration?
The original Declaration is now exhibited in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington, DC. It has faded badly, largely because of poor preservation techniques during the 19th century. The document measures 29-3/4 inches by 24-1/2 inches.
See picture.
What's on the Back?
People who watched the popular movie "National Treasure" want to know. On the back, at the bottom, upside-down is simply written: "Original Declaration of Independence / dated 4th July 1776." Regarding the message on the back, according to the National Archives, "While no one knows for certain who wrote it, it is known that early in its life, the large parchment document was rolled up for storage. So, it is likely that the notation was added simply as a label." There are no hidden messages.
Do we have unalienable or inalienable Rights?
In the final version, we have unalienable Rights!
You will find the following resources on this site:
The Declaration of Independence
The text and image of the Declaration.
The Signers of the Declaration of Independence
This section gives a profile of every delegate who signed the Declaration in 1776. You will find factual information such as birth-death dates, occupation, education, etc. Each signer also has a short story of his life. A good resource for students.
Related Information
This section provides a listing of people (George III, Patrick Henry, etc.), Events and Things (Boston Massacre, a Tax Stamp, etc.), and Laws and Resolutions (Sugar Act, Quartering Act, etc.).
Thomas Jefferson's Account of the Declaration
Read the lengthy excerpt from Thomas Jefferson's autobiography that talks about the days leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the history of the document, and various other factors which involved the authoring of the Declaration.
The Declaration House
Here is where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration. The house has been reconstructed and is now part of Independence National Historical Park. The Independence Hall Association, host of these web pages, led the efforts to have the Graff House reconstructed in 1975, in time for the Bicentennial.
Declaration Timeline
A Chronology of Events, June 7, 1776 to January 18, 1777.
Revolutionary War Timeline
A Chronology from the French and Indian War to the Constitution
More Information
A collection of orations and newspaper clippings
Start page | The Document | Signers | Related Information | Jefferson's Account | Declaration House Declaration Timeline | Rev. War Timeline | More Resources |


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Danbury Sports Dome quietly opens
Largest indoor soccer field covered by an air-supported structure in the world
DANBURY -- Called one of the largest indoor soccer facilities of its kind, the Danbury Sports Dome, is opening its doors.
For more than four years, the dome on Shelter Rock Lane has been in the planning and construction phases. The dome, an air-supported structure, covers more than 3.5 acres and includes a full-sized regulation soccer field.
Kirk Bamford, the dome's operations manager, said the facility opened this week and a grand opening celebration is planned for sometime next month.
"We are really excited that this day has finally come and we are looking forward to providing a great opportunity to take advantage of a world-class facility for sport and recreation," Bamford said. "We've already begun taking bookings for the fall and winter season."
While developers had hoped to open the facility by last fall, Bamford said the city's permit process involving such an unusual structure took longer than expected.
The 90-foot-tall dome encompasses 120,000 square feet and includes the one large regulation soccer field or four smaller practice fields that can be configured for various sports, including football, lacrosse and field hockey.
Donato Fraioli, chief executive officer of ASATI Inc., the New York-based company that created the dome structure, has said it's the largest indoor soccer field covered by an air-supported structure in the world.
In any event, Danbury Youth Soccer Club President Michael Diker said it's certain to be one of the largest in the region.
"From my understanding, it's going to be one of the nicer indoor soccer fields in the area," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting inside to see what it's all about."
Diker said the club's travel and premiere soccer teams likely will use the dome for weekly practice sessions in the winter.
"It's nice that something will be available locally that provides a full-sized field experience even in bad weather," he said.
Besides the sports fields, Bamford said the dome includes a quarter-mile track, fitness classes with personal training opportunities and physical therapy services.
firstname.lastname@example.com; 203-731-3358; www.twitter.com/DirkPerrefort


text:
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What is a Multi-domain SAN SSL Certificate?A Subject Alternative Names (SAN) SSL Certificate secures multiple websites with different domain names – for example, LilysBikes.com, LilysBikeShop.com and Lilys.bike. These certificates are often used by businesses that maintain related websites under different domain names. Those who don't want the sites to appear "connected" to each other should not use this type of certificate.
Our SAN Certificate also covers unlimited server licenses. SAN Certificates can be used with shared hosting.
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Anyone who has more than one website to protect should consider a SAN Certificate. It's more time- and cost-effective than buying separate SSL certificates for each website.
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Malozemoff pours first gold at Carlin mine
Plato Malozemoff, president of the Newmont Mining Corporation, this morning personally directed pouring of the first ingots of full-production gold at the Carlin Gold Mine, as dignitaries from Elko, Nevada, the federal government, Newmont, and other affiliated interests, observed.
Newsmen from leading journals throughout the nation were also on hand.
At a press briefing last night at the Stockmen's Motor Hotel, Malozemoff revealed the hitherto secret fact that the Carlin Gold Mine ore is averaging 0.32 ounces of gold to the ton, or $11 per ton. Production will claim more than 90 per cent of the gold in the ore.
Robert Fulton, vice president of Newmont, said the orebody has so far been mapped out to contain 11 million tons of ore; or enough to keep the mine and mill operating at its 2,000 ton per day capacity for just less than 15 years. Beyond that, mapping is not complete, although Fulton said the end of the orebody has not yet been found.
Newmont's operation is the first major gold strike to be made in the past 35 years. Malozemoff noted that, 35 years ago, the operation would have required three times the men it does today, because of advances since then in mechanization.
The Carlin Gold Mine, with about 76 employes, will produce about one-seventh the annual U.S. gold production with 200,000 ounces, coming from the mill. Only the Homestake mine at Lead, S.D., produces more, at 500,000 ounces per year. Two Canadian mines are larger making Carlin the fourth largest in North America.
Fulton said his studies of the orebody reveal it dates back to the Paleozoic age for formation of the host rock. The gold itself dates to the Terciary period of the earth's development. He noted there is a remarkable association of barite in the ore, and said it is their hunch that the two mineral are not too far apart in age.
Frank McQuiston, Newmont vice president and designer of the Carlin operation, said the gold is in siltstone — "mud when its wet," but the recovery of gold through cyanidization is hampered by the slime formation. Special filtration and floculation systems were designed, including radioactive systems, to clear the solution so the gold could be precipitated out.
McQuistion noted that Carlin is the only cold-climate operation using outdoor thickener tanks and the first of its size to be constructed in as short a time as ten months.
Construction began before the drawings were complete, McQuiston said, with the Bechtel Corporation in charge of mill construction.
Bob Hernlund, vice president of Newmont who headed up the engineering, said several unique problems in gold mining were presented by the ore, and unique solutions were found.
The gold is so fine, it can only be seen under 1,800 power magnification, and then only the larger particles are photographable. These "larger" particles are two millionths of a square inch in size, he said. In order to successfully assay the ore, Newmont had to adapt the Australian system of atomic absorption spectrophy, the only North American operation using this system. Fire assaying by methods over a hundred years old were not satisfactory for extremely fine, low grade ore.
Bob Denny, Newmont vice president in charge of engineering for automation and mechanization, said the plant was designed with three control points.
Radiation from cesium is used for control throughout the plant, he said, with little or no danger to workmen from the radioactivity present because of shielding.
All critical items were started up for production on the automatic setup, with no manual beginnings, so that there would be no possibilities of error or failure showing up later, he said.
Fulton noted that Isbell Construction Company, holders of the original stripping contract, removed 2.5 million tons of earth prior to the start of the operation. Howard and Crawford is now continuing the overburden stripping.
A 3 1/2-yard electric shovel loads the dump trucks with ore or overburden, which then moves to its proper destination.
Malozemoff said the mill represents a $6 million investment, the tailings dam another $1 million, and the overburden removal prior to operation another $3 million, for a total investment of $10 million before the first ingot was poured early this month during the shake-down period.
Newmont footed the investment alone, with no loans, stock promotion, or other methods, and will recover the investment in the first five years of operation, Malozemoff noted.


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Finally made some REAL progress last night.
I wish I would have taken more pictures but the workspace was cramped and all I had was my Iphone which was busy pumping out tunes from my Ke$ha Pandora station. Ke$ha and flip-flops while working on the Z. I felt like a real man yesterday.
I bought a cheap pneumatic jigsaw at HF on Saturday, and attempted to use it last night to cut through my heater core hoses. The hoses are tucked too far up there to get at with a dremel. Believe me, I tried. I hooked this thing up to my 8 gallon 2hp compressor (also from HF) and with a full tank it was enough to cut through each hose. I was pretty impressed. Although initially, it took about 10 seconds to get started, I was afraid I'd have to find another tool. It just took a little force and once it dug in it went right through.
I pulled the old heater core out which just barely fit. This might have been easier pulling the dash out and replacing it the right way (kidding...sort of).
This is what I was left with:
And this was my work area:
You all know how big the interior of a 2 seater Z is. Now imagine someone 6'4" crawled up under the dash. That's where I was. Not fun. For some reason Nissan left all the edges underneath the dash sharp so my forearms are all scratched up.
My cubicle:
Old heater core vs new heater core:
The old one didn't even look that bad, although one of the plastic adapters for the water pipes looked a little green. I'm guessing (hoping) that's where it was leaking.
I ran across the street to Lowe's (I love being so close) and picked up 1 foot of 5/8" ID heater hose and a few hose clamps. It was 5/8" ID and 1" OD, this was THICK beefy hose. I was (and still am) worried it might not clamp tight enough or leak.
I used the saw to cut the new heater core in the same location as the old one. Unfortunately when I was cutting the old hoses I couldn't make cuts perpendicular to the hose so I had to leave the heater hose a little long to make sure I got a good clamp. But after I got the hoses cut and the new heater core wedged into place everything went pretty smoothly. There is NO room to work up there, I used the shortest screwdrivers I could find and had some good luck finding holes I couldn't see. It's easiest if you take the feed/return hoses off the new heater core before you put it in. I'm pretty sure you HAVE to take the bottom one off or you'll never get it up there.
New heater core in place with bottom hose removed:
I didn't leave the hoses as rough as they looked. I wormed some emery cloth up there and sanded down all the edges in hopes of preventing future leaks.
I got my hose clamps tightened up as good as I could and called it a night. My girlfriend got home just as I was tightening the last one and didn't feel like putting it all back together just yet. I think I want to run the car before I put all that back in to make sure I don't have any leaks. I gotta say....with the 90+ degree heat we've been having lately, I'm not nearly as excited to have working heat in my car as I was a few weeks ago. But I know come fall it'll be worth it.
Job completed! Mostly...
Now all I have to do is replace the O rings in the AC system and the dryer and the motor goes back in on Saturday! As long as the water pipe gets here in time...


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Hello fellow programmers.
I am new into the world of Android based Applications. I can create the most basic things in Android studio and learning the logic of the software. I am trying to import/open Mumble open source file i got from Github but seem to be failing with something and can't figure out what i am doing wrong. First attempt it will create the Gradle file for me and import all Libraries necessary to launch after all is done when trying to run the code into a android phone it will tell me the MNotification (setEventListenerInfo) is no longer supported according to my research. I can't figure out how to have this source running before i start studying how it works so i can continue with this example.
Thanks in advance for any help.
https://github.com/pcgod/mumble-android Code used for Mumble
https://github.com/acomminos/Plumble Code used for Plumble
In Plumble the error i get is there is no class called Default.
Android Studio, Eclipse, IntelliJ
Everything related to the inofficial Mumble client on Android named Plumble
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I don`t think there`s a lot more upside in the stock market. I am not looking for a collapse but what I am looking for is a dollar collapse. Even if the market continues to move higher, it is nominal highs only, it is not real highs adjusted for the loss of purchasing power.
Peter Schiff is an American businessman, investment broker and financial commentator. Schiff is the CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc.
Mar 21, 2014
Blog Archive
- ► 2020 (69)
- ► 2019 (89)
- ► 2018 (169)
- ► 2017 (188)
- ► 2016 (252)
- ► 2015 (344)
- Economic Weakness & The Weather Excuse
- Oil & Gas Portfolios
- U.S. Banks: Not Enough Stress in The Tests
- Bullish On Energy Investing
- Markets: I Think They Have Already Peaked
- Crude Oil Is Going to 150-200 Dollars
- Major Bubbles In Stocks And In Real Estate
- Video: Paycheck Fairness?
- A Tapering Pause Will Rally Gold
- The Federal Reserve Is Basing Its Assumptions On A...
- Debating Gold & Inflation with Mark Dow
- Interest Rates Are Too Low
- Facebook (FB): Zuckerberg`s Private Equity Fund
- Obamacare: It`s A Lousy Deal
- Federal Reserve: They Are Not Going To Raise Rates
- Video: The U.S. Economy Is All Screwed Up
- How The Federal Reserve Will Read Inflation
- Interest Rate Hikes: Moving The Goal Posts
- Not a Lot Of Upside In Stocks
- Gold: Sentiment Still Favors Higher Prices
- A Declining Living Standard In America
- Gold, Federal Reserve, Bubble Economy
- Video: The Gold Rally
- Video: America`s Housing Market
- Gold: The Price Is Low and Rising
- Video: Gold, Tax Season & IRAs
- Video: The Day Of Reckoning Is Relatively Close
- Gold Companies: China Should Buy Them
- Gold: The Conventional Wisdom
- Massive Debt Monetization Coming
- Inflation Is Taking Its Toll On The Mining Industry
- Video: Lighting The Path To Liberty
- The Government Is Lying About Inflation
- Average People Are Concerned About Inflation
- Gold: Mispricing The Asset
- The Real Value Of Gold (video)
- What Motivates Individuals To Own Gold
- Gold Stocks & Gold Price
- Negative Press On Gold
- Stock Market: Heads We Win, Tails We Win
- Stock Market: All Is Good News
- ▼ March (41)


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Members have special rights and obligations in a not-for-profit organisationRead more... Members
Members have special rights and obligations in a not-for-profit organisationRead more... Members
Laws about employees apply to not-for-profits like any organisation. They can be complex and change regularlyRead more... Employees
It is important to carefully handle terminations and resignationsRead more... Termination and Resignation
Internal conflicts occur within organisations such as between an organisation and a member. Special laws apply to these conflicts.Read more... Internal Conflict
Mediation can be used to resolve both external and internal disputes without needing to go to court.Read more... Mediation
External conflicts are when an organisation has a conflict with a person or organisation external to the organisation.Read more... External Conflict
It's important to handle disputes with employees carefully and in line with legal requirementsRead more... Disputes with employees
In Australia there are different laws in different states, as well as Commonwealth laws that apply in all states. This website contains information about Victorian, NSW and Commonwealth laws.


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Search Results
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Try searching again using these tips:
- Double-check the spelling. Try a different spelling.
- Limit the search to one or two words.
- Be less specific with your choice of search terms. Sometimes a more general term will lead you to similar products.


text:
Has Jerry Sandusky Tainted Joe Paterno's Legacy? — Sports Survey of the Day
Joe Paterno's name will forever be associated with college football. He is a legend in the sport and an American icon. Has the Jerry Sandusky scandal taken away from his accomplishments, though?When news broke last fall that Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky may have sexually abused young boys, many were affected — perhaps none more so than former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. His involvement, or lack thereof cost him his job, and possibly his legacy. The Sandusky trial is set to begin this week, and many are still questioning whether Paterno could have done more.
In reality, Paterno broke no laws. He reported the incident to his supervisors, and they had to take the next step. Morally, Paterno should have done more. This one incident will forever be synonymous with Penn State, Joe Paterno and the legacy of the two. Does Paterno doing nothing change your opinion about the man?


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main(713) 222-2273
Schedule an appointment online with ScheduleNow
Imaging & Diagnostic Services
Care Services
Appointments & Doctors
Your Visit
Online Patient Services
Patient Support
Digestive Health
To search Houston doctors, please select a specialty & submit your Zip Code below.
To schedule an appointment online, select provider type, service and submit your ZIP code below.
Upper endoscopy allows your doctor to examine the lining of the upper part of your gastrointestinal tract, which includes the esophagus, stomach and duodenum (first portion of the small intestine). Your doctor will use a thin, flexible tube called an endoscope, which has its own lens and light source, and will view the images on a video monitor.
Upper endoscopy helps your doctor evaluate symptoms of persistent upper abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or difficulty swallowing. It's an excellent test for finding the cause of bleeding from the upper gastrointestinal tract. It's also more accurate than X-ray films for detecting inflammation, ulcers and tumors of the esophagus, stomach and duodenum.
Your doctor might use upper endoscopy to obtain a biopsy of small tissue samples. A biopsy helps your doctor distinguish between benign and malignant (cancerous) tumors. Remember, biopsies are taken for many reasons, and your doctor might order one even if he or she does not suspect cancer. For example, your doctor might use a biopsy test to check for Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that causes ulcers.
Upper endoscopy is also used to treat conditions of the upper gastrointestinal tract. Your doctor can pass instruments through the endoscope to directly treat many abnormalities with little or no discomfort. For example, your doctor might stretch a narrowed area, remove polyps (usually benign growths) or treat bleeding.
Your doctor might start by spraying your throat with a local anesthetic or by giving you a sedative to help you relax. You'll then lie on your side, and your doctor will pass the endoscope through your mouth and into the esophagus, stomach and duodenum. The endoscope doesn't interfere with your breathing. Most patients consider the test only slightly uncomfortable, and many patients fall asleep during the procedure.
Although complications can occur, they are rare when doctors who are specially trained and experienced in this procedure perform the test. It is important to recognize early signs of possible complications:


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Listen To Christina Aguilera & T.I.'s New Single 'Castle Walls' And Tell Us What You Think!
The single is all about being 'alone' and feeling 'broke.' Are you buying it?
Hit maker Alex Da Kid is at it again. The man responsible for both parts of Rihanna and Eminem's successful duet "Love The Way You Lie" also produced this new track, "Castle Walls," which brings T.I. and Christina Aguilera together on T.I.'s new album, No Mercy. Listen to the song, read the lyrics and then tell us: What do you think of the song? Does it make you want to pick up T.I.'s album Dec. 7?
Check out the lyrics to 'Castle Walls':
Everyone thinks that I have it all
but it's so empty living behind
these castle walls
(these castle walls).
If I should tumble
if I should fall
would anyone hear me
screaming behind
these castle walls?
There's no one here at all,
behind these castle walls.
Nobody knows I'm all alone
Living in this castle made of stone
They say that money is freedom
But I feel trapped inside it all
And while I sit so high up on a throne
I wonder how I could feel this broke
On top of the world is beautiful
But there's no place to fall
Everyone thinks that I have it all
But it feels so empty behind these castle walls, these castle walls
If I should stumble, if I should fall
Can anyone hear me screaming behind these castle walls?
There's no one here at all
Behind these castle walls


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Some mathematical facts -be them approximations or not- can be described as coincidences, without any deeper meaning in themselves, but leading to relevant practical consequences. I was thinking in these two examples:
- $2^{10} = 1024 \approx 1000 = 10^3$
This "casual" approximate equation is practically relevant and potentially dangerous (I don't know what he was thinking, that guy who invented mathematics and gave us 10 fingers!). First some engineers created the decibel and started assuming 'a 3db change means a factor of 2' - harmless enough. But then came digital computers and the convention-confusion KB=1024 bytes started.
- $\displaystyle 2^{7/12} = 1.498307\ldots \approx 3/2$
Related to the tempered system used in music since -approx- Bach, this can be seen as a fortunate or unfortunate fact. If it were an exact equation, musical tuning would be simpler and 'pure'; because it's not, the intervals we usually hear are 'impure'. On the other hand, if the approximation were just a little worse, the equal temperament would we intolerable, and to transpose music in most instruments would be a mess.
Can you think of more examples?


text:
The Brooklyn paper recently filed this report on last weekends memorial ride for cyclist Jamsine Herron who was killed on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn.
Mean Streets: Ghost bike for Denver gal. By Thomas Tracy The Brooklyn Paper
(photo by: Stefano Giovannini)
Brooklyn has a new ghost bike.
Mourners installed the white-painted memorial — […]


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It appears from the information provided in the hadith that Hazrat Mahdi (as) will use the seal of our Prophet (saas) in his works and in everything auspicious, excellent and useful that he does.
It also appears from the hadith that Hazrat Mahdi(as) will use the seal of the Prophet (saas) in the works he writes or has prepared, and that he will adorn his works with the seal of the Prophet (saas).
It is particularly noted in this hadith that this seal will be golden, in other words, that a gold-colored seal will be used.
Jaffar Sadiq says: "It is as if I literally see Qaim [Hazrat Mahdi (as)]. HE WILL TAKE THE SEAL OF THE PROPHET'S (SAAS) GOLD-SEALED agreement OUT OF HIS POCKET and READ ALOUD to people."
(Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 52, p. 326)


text:
The LG Rumor is Sprint's answer to those who want the convenience of a QWERTY keyboard without the complexity of a smartphone. A successor to the LG F9200 (which was for Cingular/AT&T last year), the Rumor is an attractive handset with a hidden slide-out QWERTY keyboard plus a few advanced features like a megapixel camera, a music player, and Sprint Navigation support. We really liked how easy it was to use, especially when sending text messages and e-mails. You can even access social networking sites like Facebook in just a couple of clicks. We wished the Rumor had EV-DO for faster Web surfing, as well as a better screen resolution, but the Rumor is still a great phone, especially if you're a messaging addict. The LG Rumor retails for $279.99, but you can get it for $79 with a two-year contract and a $50 rebate.
At first glance, the LG Rumor looks like a rather bulky candy-bar handset. Measuring 4.3 inches by 2 inches by 0.7 inch, the Rumor definitely does not fit comfortably in a pants pocket, and at 4.13 ounces, it's heavier than most phones its size. But there's a reason for its heft; the LG Rumor has a hidden slide-out QWERTY keyboard. To reveal it, you have to slide the phone's front face to the left lengthwise, at which point the screen orientation switches from portrait to landscape mode. You can then reposition the phone horizontally so that you can thumb-type on the keyboard. The slider mechanism felt quite solid, and we opened and closed the phone with ease. Overall, the phone is quite attractive, with curved corners, clean lines, and a nice feel in the hand.
On the front of the Rumor is a generous 2-inch diagonal display with a rather disappointing 176x220 pixel resolution. Colors didn't really pop and images appeared a tad washed out, even more so under bright sunlight. You can change the backlight time as well as font size, but not the brightness or contrast. On the left spine is the volume rocker and dedicated camera key, while the headset jack and microSD card slot are on the right. The camera lens sits on the back.
The navigation controls of the LG Rumor consist of two soft keys underneath the display, plus a five-way navigation toggle that doubles as shortcuts to a new text message, the music player, the My Content folder, the calendar, plus the Menu/OK key in the middle. There are also two soft keys to the right of the display that act as the screen's soft keys when the QWERTY keyboard is slid so that the screen's orientation switches to landscape mode. To either side of the five-way toggle are a dedicated speakerphone key (it also doubles as a Recent Calls shortcut), a Back key, and Talk and End/Power keys. The overall keypad on the Rumor is vastly improved over the F9200. Not only is it much roomier, the capsule-shaped buttons are raised enough above the surface to allow for easy pressing and dialing by feel.
The QWERTY keyboard on the Rumor is also a lot better than the one on the F9200. The keys are much bigger, with a nice bumpy texture that makes it easy to thumb-type. Along with the QWERTY keys are a Symbol key, a function key, a shift key, a Back key, a small spacebar, and a Enter/Return key. The only thing we didn't quite like was that there weren't any dedicated keys for basic characters such as the period and the comma, so we had to press the function key each time we wanted to use them. Using the QWERTY keyboard to type out text messages is definitely easier than using the dialpad, though we do think a little more room to type would feel more comfortable. Another nice bonus is that when you slide the QWERTY keyboard out, the messaging menu immediately pops up on the display, letting you text with even more ease and speed.
Though the LG Rumor comes with a few multimedia features, its lack of EV-DO and Sprint Power Vision access means the Rumor isn't meant for power users. But before we go into that, let's start with the basics. The LG Rumor's phone book holds about 500 contacts with room in each entry for five phone numbers, e-mail and Web addresses, and a memo. You can save callers to groups, assign them a photo for caller ID, and pair them with one of 35 polyphonic ringtones. You can also assign one of 23 "text tones" for incoming text messages. Other essentials include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calculator, a currency and unit converter, a notepad, a tip calculator, a stopwatch, and a voice recorder.


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Invasive Species Resources
Displaying 1 to 20 of 335Search Help
Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism.
Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism.
eXtension is an educational partnership of more than 70 universities to help you improve your life every day with access to objective, research-based information and educational opportunities. Categories include integrated pest management and fire ants. Requires free registration.
See also: Use the One Search service to search the resources provided by your Cooperative Extension Service using a Google Custom Search Engine that includes many of the Cooperative Extension web sites provided by your Land-Grant institutions.
Austin City Connection (Texas). Watershed Protection Department.


text:
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